


Mijah Rokee

by sturms_sun_shattered



Series: Illuminate Your Path [3]
Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Acts of Kindness, Friendship, Gen, In Game, Injury, Introspection, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-03
Updated: 2020-03-03
Packaged: 2021-02-23 02:09:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,777
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23004061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sturms_sun_shattered/pseuds/sturms_sun_shattered
Summary: Kass sits alone on the pedestal rock, decoding his teacher’s verse.  Link stumbles through the Ridgeland fields and plateaus, looking for safety.  For a moment, they both can acknowledge that destiny is a lonely place.
Relationships: Kass & Link (Legend of Zelda)
Series: Illuminate Your Path [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1603183
Comments: 10
Kudos: 84





	Mijah Rokee

A flash of light in the distance caught Kass's eye. Perched atop of a pedestal rock formation at sunset, he could see from Washa’s Bluff out into the Tabanthan fields and plateaus. The light was a glint of the last of the sun's orange rays off of a shield slung across a traveller's back. Kass realized that it was Link from the shock of flaxen hair, uncommon even among Hylians. Kass lowered his accordion. Link was limping across the plateau, his sword drawn against the stal monsters that would erupt from the earth with the sun’s disappearance. From this distance, Kass thought he looked tiny and young, a thought that stirred up a moment of inexplicable sadness. His mind made up, Kass set his accordion in its case and swooped down to offer his assistance, covering the distance in mere seconds. 

“My friend,” he called from above. 

Link looked up, his face taut with pain, though his eyes registered relief. Kass landed gently beside him on the cool grass. Up close he could confirm what he had suspected from a distance; the fabric of Link's trousers were shredded and stained with blood.

“I have a camp nearby,” Kass told him “safe from the reaches of—m”

Kass was cut off as the ground beneath them shifted and three lanky stalmoblins clawed themselves to the surface. Kass flapped into the air in surprise. Below, Link slashed out with a rusted blade, brazenly entering the reach of the stalmoblin to strike the skull from the spine. He parried the blow from the second, and turned to hack the head off of the third. 

Though not a fighter by nature, Kass grasped the skull through the empty eye sockets with his talons. The sensation made him shudder. The skull was the size of a horse’s head, chattering and champing even as Kass dashed it against a rock formation until it crumbled. Turning with a swoop, he saw Link had finished with the remaining monsters and had fallen to his uninjured knee, holding his bloody left leg awkwardly. Kass landed beside him once again, catching him under the arm and coaxing him to his feet.

“Come with me,” Kass insisted, fearing neither of them would last a second attack.

Link stood, leaning on Kass's wing. Link seemed less able to hold his weight on the injured leg than before the attack, and Kass could feel him shaking with the strain of staying upright.

“Your camp?” Link managed through clenched teeth, few words and to the point as usual.

Kass pointed to the tallest pedestal, the tiny light from a lantern lighting the spot where Kass had erected his small wooden shelter. Link glanced behind them at the colony of keese swirling closer and closer like sinister dried leaves caught in a whirlwind. Kass glanced back too, unsure if he could even get Link to the landing. He feared to spend a night on the ground in a region with such relentless monster activity.

“I can make it,” Link said as though he had read Kass’s thoughts.

Link dropped to his knee with a grimace. Kass couldn't believe his eyes as a Rito incarnation briefly appeared swirling around Link in an upward draft. Link rode his paraglider to the height of the vortex and Kass took advantage of the current to keep close to Link, who drifted a straight line to the camp.  
His hope that his young companion was not so badly injured was dashed when Link landed on the top of the formation. His damaged leg, unable to support the weight of the landing gave way beneath him, and Link suppressed a grunt of pain, his paraglider skittering from his hands across the ridges of rock as he let it go to catch himself.

Kass collected the paraglider and knelt beside Link who was clutching his leg. The rising quarter moon's light reflected the fresh blood that had stained the moss and stone where Link’s knee had collided with the surface. Kass reached out to Link who recoiled involuntarily.

“I'm not going to harm you,” Kass reassured him, “but you know it can’t be left like that.”

Link reluctantly took the hand that reached out to him and let Kass support him to the small gazebo-like shelter. Kass helped him to the ground and pulled back the torn fabric of the legging. Clicking his beak empathetically, Kass took the lantern from the small table to examine the wound. The gash which ran from Link’s swollen knee to partway up his thigh had reopened on the rough landing and bled sluggishly from where it had split. 

“What happened?” Kass asked, as he rummaged through a small chest for something to staunch the bleeding.

“Lynel,” Link replied laconically. His voice was steady, but his face was pale, his eyes sunken with exhaustion. 

“A Lynel? You are fortunate not to have come off much worse!”

Kass—provisioned for a pilgrimage to honour his teacher’s memory—had not thought to pack much in the way of bandages in medicines. He considered a bolt of airy Gerudo fabric—so unlike the heavy feathered fabrics of the Rito—which he had hoped to bring home as a luxury for his wife. A glance back at Link’s drawn face reminded him the need was greater here, and he began to tear strips from the fabric to cleanse and wrap the wound. He collected a small jar of salve from the chest and a skin of bitter herb spirits he had acquired at Tabantha Bridge stable. He wet a strip with the spirits and handed the skin to Link.

“Have a drink. I’ve heard this helps Hylians with their pain.”

Link wrinkled his nose at the strong smell, but dutifully swallowed a small mouthful and twisted his face in disgust, coughing and handing it quickly back to Kass. 

“I’ve heard it’s quite strong,” Kass agreed, sealing the skin, “quite fatal to Rito. I had hoped to trade it.”

Kass spoke about how he traded items between regions hoping to distract Link as he tore the pant-leg open to fully expose the wound. Link sucked in his breath and drew back when Kass first touched the wound with the spirit-soaked cloth. Kass withdrew, and held Link's shoulder to support the Hylian. The adrenaline that had kept Link fighting and had aided their escape had long since subsided and the Hylian’s tolerance for the pain along with it.

Steadying Link with his firm grasp he was reminded for a moment of Cree’s failed first flight. Kass had held his daughter while Amali bandaged her leg and cleaned her cuts. Though tiny, she refused to cry over her injuries out of shame that she could not fly as well as the older children in the village. Kass felt a terrible pang for the home that was so near, but he could not yet return to.

“It will be over soon,” Kass reassured Link as much as himself.

Link nodded, accepting the necessity of the pain as knights and soldiers do. He gritted his teeth as Kass cleansed the wound, barely making a sound until Kass began to apply the salve of courser bee honey, rock salt, and armoranth. Link suppressed a yelp and shifted uncomfortably, but motioned for Kass to get on with it. The Rito finished the application and bound the leg with clean strips of the light fabric. 

Ordeal over, Link leaned back on his elbows, his injured leg outstretched. His breath formed clouds in front of him and he shivered in in cold air. Kass covered him with the hempen blanket from his hammock.

“You did well. You should rest, my friend,” Kass said.

Link drew the blanket closer around himself, curled up on the wooden planks and closed his eyes. Kass suspected that this young man had slept in far less comfortable places with just as much ease. He retired to his own hammock.

oOo

Kass opened his eyes and became aware that a sound had awoken him. He was used to the sounds of nature, even the grunting of moblins from a nearby plateau where they had a tendency to congregate. The eastern sky was the faintest of greys, the clouds reflecting a hint of pink in this early hour. Recalling the previous night he sat up to see Link fidgeting in his sleep as though gripped by some febrile dream. Kass pushed himself out of his hammock knelt beside him, touching a pink cheek to check for fever. Link opened his eyes and reached for his weapons. Kass hastily withdrew. Recognition flashed in Link’s eyes and he let go of the arrow he had grasped. Kass wondered morbidly if the youth had ended many enemies with an arrow through their face.

“Sorry,” Link said, his voice raspy with sleep.

“You’re forgiven, I didn’t mean to startle you.”

Link nodded and pushed the blanket aside and attempted to collect his weapons.

“Don’t feel you must leave,” said Kass.

Link looked back at Kass with an expression that suggested Kass was welcome to try and stop him.

“I only mean—my teacher left me with a verse of this area. Perhaps you can help me once again to decipher its meaning.”

Link continued fastening his bracer on his arm, but nodded his agreement. Kass pulled the chest to the table as a makeshift stool for Link, quickly placing his diary on his hammock. He reached into a hempen sack which he had hung on a support beam, and placed a two apples and a handful wild-berries on the table for his guest to break his fast.

“Eat, and I will play my song for you.”

Link carefully sat on the chest, and Kass noted that he kept he leg outstretched, clearly still tender. Kass wanted to check that infection had not set in, but knew he was likely to send Link running if he invaded his privacy. Instead, as Link ate, Kass picked up his accordion and played the verse.

“When the moon bleeds and the fiends are reborn  
The Monks will invite you as they have sworn.  
But first you must stand on the pedestal bare  
With nothing between you and the night air.”

“Well, what do you think?” Kass asked, somewhat hesitant to share his own theories.

“Sounds...cold,” said Link, pulling a leaf from a berry and not looking up.

“We’re due for another blood moon, and quite soon I should think. If you wish to stay here I would be glad of the company,” Kass suggested carefully.

Link, still looking tired and wan from the previous night, nodded. Kass was relieved.

oOo

They spent the first morning inside the shelter as the rain ran down and in rivulets off the rocks. Link sat at the table, blanket around his shoulders, conditioning his weapons. Kass played his accordion for a bit, then sat in his hammock to go over his teacher’s notes. Link was silent and wholly dedicated to the task at hand, running the whetstone over the rusted blade and buffing off the rust where he could. Kass—peering over his book—wondered if this silent focus had been of use to him in his previous life as the princess’s sworn shield.

The afternoon was dark, but the rain had ceased. They ate what Kass was able to cook from his supplies. Kass spoke often, so grateful to have a break from the solitude of his travels. Link nodded his agreement, occasionally responding in few syllables. As the black clouds of the afternoon blew on, Kass noticed Link seemed listless and pained.

“Your bandage should be changed,” Kass suggested carefully.

Link sat on the chest, blanket still around his shoulders, and allowed Kass to unwrap the bandages. The layer closest to the skin pulled away stickily, soaked with the honey-based salve and dried blood. In the dim afternoon light he could see the wound was slightly inflamed, and the skin around it was warm. It was clear from Link’s solemn expression that he too could see the infection setting in. Kass touched the Hylian's forehead and cheeks, which Link bore stoically.

“You don’t have a fever,” Kass informed him.

Link stood, wound open to the cold air. He dropped the blanket onto the hammock and grabbed the skin of spirits, with a looked that asked ‘may I?’.

“Of course,” said Kass.

Link walked out onto the moss and stone of the pedestal formation. He crouched, avoiding bending his injured leg as much as he could manage. He pulled the tattered trouser leg out of the way, yanked the cork from the skin with his teeth and dribbled some of the liquid into the wound. He could not suppress the choked expletive that broke from his lips when the spirits touched the raw flesh, but he continued until the wound had been completely irrigated. He recapped the skin, limped back inside, applied another layer of the salve and allowed Kass to bind the wound once more.

“You needn’t suffer alone,” Kass told Link, helping him to the hammock.

Link lay back and pulled the blanket around his body.

“It looks like a normal moon tonight,” said Link, looking at the darkening sky.

“It does,” Kass agreed, sitting on the chest.

They sat for a while longer before Kass turned back to the book he had left on the table.

“I should have let you see to this earlier. My life isn’t my own, and I’ve been gambling with it,” Link said after a long silence.

It was the most Kass had ever heard him say at a time. He almost wondered if he had imagined it.

“Youth makes us all invincible,” he said with understanding, though youth seemed a point in an ever more distant past for Kass.

“Perhaps not. I slept for one hundred years because I was not invincible. I look at the scars on my body and I can’t imagine what caused them, or remember the pain of them. I’m expected to seek out the danger that left me this way, because I’m told to. It seems a lot...for one person.”

“Because you are called to,” said Kass, “we are all called to some small part of the goddess’s plan.”

Link nodded, but just for a moment Kass saw him waver. How long in his solitary travels must this poor boy have thought these things?

“To be a Champion is a lonely path,” Kass said, “but it does not mean you are alone. I saw the incarnation of our Rito Champion help you take flight, and I know that you are never really alone. There are many who will help you on your way.”

Silent after his sudden confession, Link seemed almost alarmed at himself and turned in early.

oOo

The next morning Link seemed eager to leave, perhaps imagining that he had overshared the night before. Kass, still concerned about the wound tried to convince Link he should stay—surely the moon would rise red tonight. Link left anyway, promising to return before sunset, and Kass was left alone to fill the silence with his music. 

His eyes set on that avian colossus now fixed on its perch above his village, Kass prayed that his wife and girls remained safe and well.

“Kass!”

A voice cut through his thoughts as they sky was turning from pink to black. He looked over the ledge to see Link, his trousers repaired and a sack over his shoulder. Kass floated down to meet him.

“For you,” said Link, handing him the sack,

Kass peered inside to find a top up of his provisions: fruit, dried fish, goat butter, and herbs.

“Thank you,” said Kass sincerely.

Link nodded then looked up at the sky. The blood moon’s first tendrils of light crept over the mountains. Beside them, the ancient dais ignited orange patterns. Link began to strip off his weapons and place them neatly beside the erupted earth around the perimeter of that now active platform.

“I’m afraid I must go,” said Kass.

Link pulled his tunic over his head and folded it, nodding, but not looking at Kass. The Rito swore that his young friend seemed disappointed.

“We are bound to meet again,” said Kass, “some souls cross paths over and over because they are meant to. The goddess has seen fit to make us in need of each other.”

Link placed his folded shirt and trousers in his overturned shield, the centenarian scars on his torso gleaming in the red light. He paused before stepping on that cold stone of the ancients.

“Thank you, Kass.”

"May the light illuminate your path."

**Author's Note:**

> Confession: I wrote this two months ago and I enjoyed writing it so much that I just started writing BotW fan fiction like crazy. I initially thought to put this in a larger series, but I think it's better as a stand alone. 
> 
> This spawned when I was trying to raise Mijah Rokee's shrine. I lost count of how many fires Link lit at the top of that pedestal rock waiting for the Blood Moon, and I began to imagine him spending days with Kass, getting under each other’s skin, having a laugh, sitting in uncomfortable silence...but you got this...


End file.
